What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 361 There's one more thing
Gaijin holds a 70% controlling stake in three key companies of the Shanghai Computing Institute: the No. 5 Component Factory, the Electron Tube Factory, and the No. 14 Radio Factory.

At Tang Wen's request, Li Zhengyang was at that time integrating all three factories into Shanghai-Semiconductor-Electronics (SSE), a subsidiary of Gaijin Heavy Industry.

"The No. 5 Component Factory and the No. 14 Radio Factory are mainly engaged in chip production. They have their own complete factories and in-house R&D capabilities. The electron tube factory is somewhat inferior. Now it mainly produces picture tubes and LCD monitors, but it can also make circuit boards."

The three factories have a total of about 4000 employees, with a high proportion of skilled workers and researchers. Personnel changes have been minimal, with only a few management positions leaving.

Li Zhengyang took Tang Wen on a tour of several factories, accompanied by Song Nan, who had been called over after leaving her chat room job.

"Good morning/afternoon, General Manager of the factory."

The current top manager of Component Factory No. 5 is Su Huisheng, the deputy factory director, who is also the director of the technology research and development office. The old state-owned enterprise era still has its inertia.

Of course, it wasn't just him; all three integrated circuit factories were the same. They had almost always lived under planned directives and were far less accustomed to marketization than other companies.

"Hello……"

After greeting everyone, Tang Wen immediately asked:

"Can you copy the Pentium II now? Or the 486?"

"what?"

"It's copying, knocking off, do you understand what I mean?"

Su Huisheng was somewhat stunned by Tang Wen's blunt words and stammered:

"We don't have an x86 architecture license, so we can't..."

Tang Wen interrupted him directly:
"I don't believe you haven't copied it. I'm a heartless capitalist, why would I be afraid of these things? Just say it."

"Oh, we copied everything from 8086 to 386, but we didn't buy from Changcheng and Lianxiang, so we stopped."

However, these counterfeit...imitation projects were all led by computers; the factory's R&D capabilities were relatively limited and only played a supporting role. The subsequent development of the 486 only achieved partial parsing.

Su Huisheng answered honestly, and his previous stuttering had disappeared.

Tang Wen nodded, then asked:

What about the manufacturing process?

Su Huisheng: "Our factory and Factory No. 14 have very mature 1.5-micron processes, but we can also do processes below 1 micron. If we buy new equipment, we can achieve a limit of 0.1 microns."

Who should I buy it from?

“There are many, such as Rongcheng Nanguang Machinery Factory, Dalian Daguang Electronics, Changchun Optoelectronics, Capital 798 Factory, Electronics 45th Research Institute, Jingu Radio Equipment Factory, 4503 Jianguang Factory, and the local Shanghai Optical Machinery Factory... There are many. 0.1 micrometer is not a difficult process to achieve. It’s just that not many people are willing to buy domestic chips, so we haven’t opened a production line.”

Su Huisheng finished speaking blankly, watching Tang Wen's chin lower and lower.

"All domestically produced? Even the consumables?"

"correct."

"??"

No way! With so many optical engine manufacturers, how did China's chip industry manage to ruin itself?

Tang Wen seriously wondered if he had traveled to some parallel universe. Why did he feel that the domestic chip industry was thriving and full of vitality, with no sense of decline at all?

He quickly asked Su Huisheng what was going on, and then learned the truth:

Because of the Three Front strategy, decades ago, China would set up a small but complete industrial base in every region, so almost every place had its own electronics research institute.

The research style at that time was:
When one research institute develops a groundbreaking technology, it immediately shares it with other research institutions across the country, who then use their own creativity to continue researching and improving it.

This has led to a situation where several, or even dozens, of manufacturers can produce a single cutting-edge device, each with its own unique features.

Tang Wen had already realized that at this point in time, these factories were either being privatized or undergoing transformation.

They couldn't expand overseas and faced fierce competition from all over the country, so they could only engage in malicious price wars but still couldn't sell their products. This eventually led to their own demise.

Therefore... the number of researchers in China's chip industry chain is actually quite large, and the technology reserves are abundant. It's just that insufficient design and non-technical factors have led to serious lag.

To summarize: It's at its last gasp, barely managing to stay afloat thanks to past momentum, but it's about to fall into the abyss.

The outrageous truth nearly choked Tang Wen, who then grabbed Su Huisheng's shoulders and shook him violently.

"Why are you still slacking off? Hurry up and buy equipment and poach talent, then copy the Pentium II, copy Invista, hurry up and copy, copy, copy! What a load of bull for patent protection, if you don't copy now, it'll be too late!"

After shaking Su Huisheng until he was dizzy, he then roughly pulled Song Nan over:

How much has Gaijin Network lost now?

"Uh... less than a hundred million."

How much more will we lose this year?

"Looking at the user base... this year we need to add new devices, develop new QQ projects, and... maybe another 1.5 million."

"Okay, now it's time for you guys to make some money for me."

Tang Wen grabbed one of their collars with each hand, pulling the two together and saying:

"I have a plan: to gather the best artists, screenwriters, producers and programmers in the country to develop a series of games with the best graphics, the richest gameplay and the most grand world view, with Gaijin Network taking the lead;
Then Shanghai Semiconductor developed a gaming platform called… Gaijin Learning Machine, GaijinStation first generation, compatible with the best CPUs and 3D graphics cards, bringing the world's best gaming experience.

"Ahhh?"

The two listened to the wild idea in a daze, so shocked that they couldn't speak.

Developing games? And learning (game) machines too?
Song Nan was alright, after all, he was also a big fan of Tomb Raider, and he was quite excited when he heard about this big project, but Su Huisheng found it hard to accept.

After all, it's a key national enterprise, tackling world-class chip challenges. Asking him to develop game consoles... that's not appropriate!

"General Manager Tang, what can this game console do?"

Tang Wen interrupted him directly, then looked at the two of them solemnly and said:

"I'm giving you one year. If you don't finish, I'll give you two options:"

First, they are to guard the offshore oil base in the Spratly Islands for a year and are not allowed to return to the mainland.

Second, go to the Arctic to be a fisherman for a year and face off against great white sharks.

Of course, if you refuse, you can try both options.

After speaking, Tang Feng, who had come with Tang Wen, took a step forward, lifted his coat to reveal a Colt jacket with a metallic sheen at his waist.

"..."

"Please rest assured, Mr. Tang, I will definitely develop the game with high quality and quantity."

Song Nan was the first to slide to his knees. He had seen disobedient students from the Greater Bay Area being stuffed into the auxiliary fuel tank to ride a trackless roller coaster, and besides, he didn't have any resistance to it.

Su Huisheng also thought of the Gekkon aircraft carrier fleet that had been dominating the screens these past few days, and nodded wholeheartedly:

"Actually, I'm also a game enthusiast and I love game consoles. I can definitely make it in a year."

"not enough."

Tang Wen showed no intention of letting him off the hook:
"In addition, you also need to develop cloud servers and data processing centers for Gekin Networks, solve the chip problem for the avionics of the MD.11 passenger plane... I will try to buy patents for these, and we also need to make automotive chips."

Finally, assemble another team to study wireless technology and help me with something very important.

Su Huisheng's mouth gradually opened wide, and his gaze became vacant.

Originally, Tang Wendu was too busy to manage the Shanghai factory, so he simply handed over seven or eight hundred million yuan to let them do what they wanted. With a super pay raise, everyone felt it was pretty good, and they were ready to relax and make a lot of money.

As a result, all sorts of tasks are piling up like crazy, making people dizzy and overwhelmed.

"And one more thing."

Tang Wen is not finished yet:

"Which of those upstream equipment manufacturers you mentioned have the most advanced technology? They happen to be looking to sell their optical engine business, so we'll buy it and supply it ourselves."

This was actually a minor matter, and Su Huisheng was about to nod:
"Okay, I will..."

"One last thing, I almost forgot."

Tang Wen's words made his heart leap into his throat once again:
“The learning machine also needs to have a high-frequency CPU, independent RAM, and independent 3D graphics card. Theoretically, it is also a microcomputer. I will find someone who knows microcomputers to coordinate it.”

(End of this chapter)